Speed Zone Boosters Pass Ordinance

Unfortunately, in the last couple of months, the KC Star lost a decent reporter to an area non-profit. The interim freelancer has made a hash out of one meeting and the new permanent reporter didn't even attend the last meeting and got her report from our City Administrator Barb Vernon. Frankly, a reporter can't report unless she’s at the event and the summary of the meeting in the Star's Neighborhood News was terrible.

At the council meeting on Aug 15th, by a vote of 8-2, the Prairie Village City Council passed an ordinance that will make it illegal to disobey the speed zones that will be popping up on Mission Road in the next couple of months. The ordinance was mostly a forgone conclusion but was symbolic as the last step in the hasty road to a huge change in the way traffic travels through a major artery in PV.

If you know me very well, you know that I was one of the dissenting votes. If you don’t know me very well you might think that a vote against the School Speed Zones was some kind of anti-safety, anti-child madness. It was not. Below is essentially a transcript of my comments prior to the vote. Loads more information is available, just let me know if you want to see it. The bottom line is that it is not a good idea for the city. I think my fellow council members – most of whom I respect immensely for their intellect, experience and tireless volunteer efforts for the good of PV -- were cowed by a small group of parents (most of whom I think were from Leawood). The “statistics” revealed by the parents -- who I think gave themselves the over-blown name of "Safety Committee" -- were basically garbage to anyone who looked beyond the surface and by the time I had completed my work with the Kansas Department of Transportation to obtain real pedestrian accident stats, council members who supported the speed zones would have looked bad if they changed their minds. Frankly, losing a little face with a bunch of Leawood residents would have been better for PV.

“According to city financial reports, the City historically utilizes only $250K of the amount budgeted in the Contingency fund. We have authorized nearly THREE-HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, on a single project: school zones that are not needed and will not reduce risk to our children. This expenditure is the main reason that we may either be forced to amend the budget or cut programs because the Contingency fund may not make it to the end of the fiscal year.

Even taking city population into account, KS Dept of Transportation statistics rank Prairie Village near the bottom of auto accidents with injuries in the state OR county. That Means regardless of size, Prairie Village is one of the safest cities in the state.

Per vehicle mile traveled, which is to quote KDOT, “the best available measure of exposure to harm”, Roeland Park is the only Johnson County city that sees fewer accidents or injury accidents.

It is fact, not opinion, that PRIOR TO the speed zones, Prairie Village is among the safest cities in Kansas AND Johnson County to walk or drive.

The council has not paid any heed to the opinion of the professional engineer and the police in that speed zones will likely result in more risk to children as drivers take residential streets to bypass the speed zones.

Not only has the council has ignored statistics that testify to the relative safety of PV streets, metrics to measure the success of the school zones have been completely ignored, so not only do we not care if we need them or not, we also do not care to measure if they are working or not.

I incessantly stand against this project because, YES. this horse has already left the barn, but the barn door is still partially my responsibility.”

Don’t forget as well that PV is hiring 3 new officers and buying vehicles for the new PV Traffic Unit. This was supposed to be a "budget neutral" expansion because the officers would be writing enough tickets to produce revenue that would cover the expense of their hiring.

Although the Chief of Police (the best in the state, as far as I am concerned) would never put the expectation on the police force (the best in the state as well) to pay for itself, the new Traffice Unit will have to write 50% more tickets than in the last two or three years!!!!

Yes you read it correctly: We have averaged about 7100 traffic tickets per year over the past few years and in the first year of a fully staffed Traffic Unit, Prairie Villagers should expect to see over 10,000 tickets!!!!

And there is no reason to think that we've reduced the chances that a child will get hit by a car. And there is no way to measure if they are working or not.

If you want the stats let me know.